Episode 221 | Historical Events
In this History episode we focus on the Boeing 737 MAX crisis — two crashes, 346 dead, and a flight-control system called MCAS that most of the pilots flying the plane had never been told existed. Lion Air Flight 610 went down in October 2018. Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 went down five months later. Both caused by the same system activating on a single faulty sensor, pushing the nose down more than twenty times before the crews lost control.
We trace the engineering decision that created MCAS, Boeing's decision to remove it from the pilot manual, the certification process in which Boeing effectively certified its own aircraft for the FAA, and the internal messages showing Boeing's chief technical pilot describing MCAS as "running rampant" during simulator tests. The FAA waited four days after the second crash to ground the plane — while regulators in China, Europe, and elsewhere had already acted. Boeing entered a deferred prosecution agreement and paid $2.5 billion. No executive was criminally convicted. And in January 2024, a door plug blew out of a 737 MAX 9 at altitude, raising the question of whether the manufacturing and oversight problems that produced the crisis had actually been fixed.
This podcast features narration with a synthetic AI voice.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands (https://redcircle.com/brands)
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy (https://redcircle.com/privacy)
30 Sept 2026
SEASON 11 HISTORY: THE GAP IS THE STRUCTURE
Episode 220 | Season 11 Capstone — History Episodes — Series Finale
In this History episode we close Season 11 by tracing the through-line across all eighteen topic episodes: the gap between decision-makers and consequence-bearers as the structural feature that produced every disaster in the season. From the Sago miners who died without the communication system that could have told them help was coming, to the Flint children who drank lead-contaminated water while state officials suppressed the reports showing their blood lead levels rising.
We examine the people who tried to close the gap — Rodney Rocha begging for satellite imaging, David Graham suppressed by his FDA superiors, LeeAnne Walters forcing Flint into the open, Jerry Mitchell reopening civil rights cold cases from a newspaper desk in Jackson. And we ask the question the season has always been asking: whether the institutional structures that produce these gaps have changed, or whether each generation simply inherits the same gap in different form. Season 12 follows.
This podcast features narration with a synthetic AI voice.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands (https://redcircle.com/brands)
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy (https://redcircle.com/privacy)
29 Sept 2026
SEASON 11 MYSTERY: WHO WATCHES THE WATCHERS
Episode 219 | Season 11 Capstone — Mystery Episodes
In this Mystery episode we reflect on Season 11's unresolved cases and what they share. The assassination of MLK — officially solved, institutionally suspicious, with a civil jury verdict the DOJ rejected and 2025 document releases that added detail without resolution. The Kitty Genovese myth — a solved murder with a fabricated narrative still appearing in psychology curricula decades after the debunking. The DC Snipers — a solved case whose profiling failure has been analyzed extensively but not demonstrably corrected.
The thread connecting them is not unsolved crime but unresolved accountability. When institutions produce false accounts, suppress true ones, or make errors that are identified and documented but not corrected — what closes the gap? The Mystery Capstone examines what it means that some of Season 11's open questions are not about what happened but about whether the people and systems responsible for what happened have faced any consequence for it.
This podcast features narration with a synthetic AI voice.
Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands (https://redcircle.com/brands)
Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy (https://redcircle.com/privacy)
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
4 ratings
Spotify
4.4 / 5
7 ratings
Contact History Mystery
Guest appearances
Does not typically book guests
Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.
Host of History Mystery?
Claim your podcast to manage its listing and keep your show details accurate.
Pod Engine is an independent podcast discovery and analytics service and is not affiliated with or endorsed by this podcast. Artwork and show content belong to their owners. Full legal notice.
Explore this show Podcast research with Pod Engine
